Ai is going to most likely seem OOC (out of character). There is a reason and a perfectly logically reason, and not that I'm to lazy of an Authoress to keep my characters in character. In this story the Black Org was defeated 5 years previous so Ai no longer has to worry so much of them finding out who she is a killing her. Second Shinichi and Ran have a 4-year-old daughter named Kari who has practically attached herself to Ai making her practically her older sister. That combined with the cuteness of little children has made Ai not so cold.

Disclaimer:I, Sakura no Umi, do not own Detective Conan in anyway shape or form. No money is involved this is just for my enjoyment and the enjoyment of others who choose to read it knowing that I do not own it. For fans by fans and such. On the other hand Kari Kudo is property of my imagination I thought her up on my own and any resembles to anyone else's OC (original character) was not intended. That is all.

Dang that the longest and most serious Disclaimer I've ever written

Ghost of a Past

14-year-old Yoshida Ayumi sighed as she walked out the front gate of the school. Genta and Mitsuhiko had gone to a different middle school due to location, and she hadn't seen Ai all day. She was left to her thoughts which just so happened to be on that of a little bespeckled boy. Said bespeckled boy was known as Edogawa Conan. Conan had not been seen or heard from by any of the detective boys for 5 years. His parents, as Ran-neechan had told them, had dragged him kicking and screaming out of the Mouri Detective Agency to their car. They hadn't even let him say good bye to everyone. Shortly after that episode Conan had contacted them via the detective boy badges to explain to them that he was moving to America. He mentioned that the detective boys' badges wouldn't work long distance and that he would be unable to call them due to time zones. At the age of 9 they believed him and didn't question it.

Ayumi jumped slightly from to touch of hand on her shoulder. She was about to use the Karate that Ran had been teaching her, and trying to teach Ai, when she realized it was her friend, Haibara Ai, behind her. Ran had taken it upon her self to teach the girls karate because you never knew what would happen and then mumbled something about boys and men not being very reliable. She had tried many times to convince Ai to, but Ai would merely shake her head a respond, "I have a gun and I know how to shoot it. If that isn't protection enough then I don't know what is." Ran had tried multiply time to get Shinichi to convince her, of course this was after he had fully recovered from the beating Ran gave him for being gone so long and hardly calling, but he would merely shrug and say, "Ai is very hard to convince. I don't know about you, but I sure as hell don't want that gun pointed at me," he would then mumble darkly about that would be too nice of her she would probably give me the apotoxin and then conveniently deleted the information and get ride of the spare antidote.

"Are you okay Ayumi-chan?" Ai asked panting. "I've been calling you name and trying to catch up, but you just kept walking."

"Sorry, Ai-chan." Ayumi turned her eyes to the ground ashamed at how she had ignored Ai. "I was lost in thought and wasn't paying attention."

"It's okay Ayumi-chan. Besides a little run never hurt anyone." Ai hated to see Ayumi like this. It was so hard because the girl could get worked up over the littlest things. She had been like this ever since she was little. "What were you thinking about?"

"I was thinking about Conan-kun again." Hints of red streaked Ayumi's cheeks. It was evident that she still had a crush on the bespeckled boy.

"You really miss him don't you?"

Ayumi was twisting and wringing the fabric of her school skirt in her hands as she thought. "I'm not sure really. I think I miss him… I also think I love him… It just that sometimes I….I wonder if I miss him and love him because I want things to be like when we were 7. Maybe… Maybe it because it's a mystery and I've loved solving mysteries every since I meet him. It seems that…that without him things feel different. It feels like…like …I dunno like I'm living 2 lives. The life of Yoshida Ayumi teenager and then the life of 7-year-old Ayumi of the detective boys mystery solvers extraordinaire. Since Conan left it like the two parts of been mixed together and are fighting for control. I don't know who the real me is. It feels like if I find Conan…or at least talk to him everything will be fixed. Does…does that sound stupid to you, Ai-chan?"

Ai bit her lip in concentration. Obviously the disappearance of one Edogawa Conan and the appearance of one Kudo Shinichi had affected her greatly. The problem was what could she say? It all affects Kudo and not her. "Well since Shinichi-niichan is a Meitantei and he has been teaching Genta, Mitsuhiko, you, and myself how to be good detectives it would probably be best to talk it out with him."

"Okay." Ayumi had become Little Miss Sunshine once again

There. Ai thought. Now Kudo can handle this situation however he wants, and if it fails it's his entire fault.

The two girls then walked together to Agasa-hakase house like they had done countless times before. As the started up the walk the front door was flung open and out rushed a bundle of energy.

"Ai-neechan, you're home!" the bundle of energy was a 4 year-old girl who had latched her self to Ai's legs. She titled her head causing her raven hair to fall down her back in little ripples. He brilliant blues eyes looked up with sparkles of happiness into Ai's own.

"Hello Kari-chan." Ai said smiling down at the girl. "It appears you forgot someone though."

Confused the little girl let go of Ai's legs and stepped back a couple of steps. Indeed there were 4 legs and not the usual two. She slowly lifted her eyes up to see who she had forgotten. She came face to face with Ayumi who was trying to stifle her laughter at how solemn the little girl looked. For in fact she looked like someone had eaten the last cookie out of the cookie jar when they weren't supposed to. For you must remember for 4-year-olds this is a very serious matter indeed. The little girl's face broke into a smile as she flung her self at Ayumi's legs.

"Ayumi-neechan came to visit. You came just to visit me right?" Kari looked up with pleading eyes much like Ayumi had used on Conan countless times before while Mitsuhiko and Genta had shot the unfortunate boy death glares.

"Of course."

"YAY!" she cried throwing her hands up in the air. "I'm not going to share you with Mommy or Daddy no matter how much they beg or cry." The little girl was beaming brightly

Kari started tugging on Ai's and Ayumi's skirts trying to pull them into Agasa-hakasa house as fast as she could. The two older girls quickly obliged.

"Ai-neechan?" the little girl turned pleading eyes onto her, "Can we have cookies? Agasa-ojiisan bought some."

"Of course." Kari's face broke out into a big smile, "Remember you can only have two cookies so you don't spoil your dinner."

"Awww. You sound just like Mommy." The little girl pouted, but then seemed to brighten up once she remembered she got to eat cookies even if it was only two.

"Hello Ai-kun, Ayumi-kun. Seems Kari-chan has found you." The professor said as he walked into the spacious living room of his to see Kari still trying to drag the two older girls to the kitchen. "I'm glad you can entertain her now. She has been quite the handful today."

Ai was going to say something along the lines of "She's only nuisance to you today because you've been working on another worthless invention non-stop for the past two days" Instead she said, "I'd love to ask you why today of all days she has been quite a handful, but I fear she might pop if she doesn't get her cookies soon." Agasa paled at the look she gave him and the hidden meaning of what she had said.

Before anything else could be said the two girls followed the little one into the kitchen for the long awaited cookies and of course milk. You can't have cookies without milk. Afterward Ai and Ayumi played with Kari while Agasa-hakase hid from Ai hoping to escape her wrath later. At five-o-clock the doorbell rang and Ai went to answer. Shortly after Kari was hot on her heels screaming "Mom—myyyyyyy" The ball of energy wrapped around Ran's legs. Ran a little startled at first bent down to hug the little girl, and then proceeded to pick her up.

"Hello Ai-kun, Ayumi-kun, and Agasa-hakase." Agasa had indeed come out of hiding when he had heard the doorbell ring. He still stood a safe distance from the strawberry blonde. It never hurt to be too cautious. "How was Kari-chan today? She wasn't any trouble was she?"

Agasa started to answer but Ai quickly answered for him. "She was great. We did let her have two cookies though. I hope it wasn't a problem." She then whispered to Ran. "Agasa-hakase has been caught up in another one of his experiments so I have no idea what happened while I was at school." Ran smiled and nodded with understanding. She could remember the times she and Shinichi had spent trying to convince Agasa-hakase to take them somewhere when he was in one of those moods.

"Ano, Ran-neechan, do you mind if I come over? I have something I want to talk to Shinich-niichan about."

"Sure Ayumi-kun as long as you call your parents and make sure it's alright with them."

"I will and thank you."

"Ayumi-neechan I want to show you my room." Once again Kari was pulling Ayumi along. This time it was to the house next door. Shinichi parents had decided they were going to stay in America like they had done for the past couple of years now. After Shinichi and Ran got married his parents said they could stay in the mansion. Ran agreed seeing how Shinichi would never want to part with his library.

"Well I best hurry before Kari-chan tries to pull Ayumi-kun through the locked door."

Shortly after Ayumi had arrived at the Kudo house, and been dragged through almost every room by Kari, Ran had finished dinner and like clock work Shinichi had walked through the door as soon as it was done.

"I'm home." Shinichi called into the house as he took his shoes off and changed into his house slippers. Kari hearing the sound of her father's voice bolted down the hallway and jumped into to his outstretched arms.

"Daddy!"

Ayumi had followed the 4-year-olds mad dash but at a much slower pace. Ran had also walked toward the front door after hearing the one man, I mean, girl stampede.

"Hello Ayumi-chan. What brings you here?" Shinichi asked as he picked up Kari

"I wanted to ask you about something."

Before Shinichi could respond Ran cut in saying, "Of course this will wait until after dinner since knowing you if it's a mystery you won't come out of your detective mood for a while."

"Come on Ran I've gotten better at that."

"You're still a detective geek like you were 7 years ago."

The fact that they both were referring to the time that Shinichi curiosity got the better of him causing him to get shrunk remained unsaid. Both parties knew that was what they were referring to which was all that mattered.

With that the family sat down to dinner together. Kari just chattered away about nothing in particular, but always having something to say like most 4-year-olds. Chit-chat went around the table between Ran, Shinichi, and Ayumi with Kari chiming in her thoughts even though most of the time she hadn't any clue what they were talking about. When dinner was over Shinichi invited Ayumi in the library to talk to him about what was on her mind.

"Ayumi-chan I can tell that something is bothering you and that it's been bothering you for awhile. Do you want to tell me what it is or would you rather talk to someone else about it?" It was true Shinichi knew Ayumi so well that he could tell when something was bothering her. He could also tell when she tried to hide her feelings like he had 7 years ago.

"Well I had talked to Ai-kun about it on the way home from school, and she was the one that suggested I talk to you." Shinichi had a feeling he knew where this was going. He had always known Ayumi was a smart kid, but he had hoped she and the others wouldn't figure it out. It had been hard enough telling Ran since he knew she would most likely beat him up with her karate. Now that he thought about it hadn't Ran been teaching Ayumi karate?

"Well." She began not really knowing where to start. "I've been worrying about Conan-kun for the past 5 years since he left. I've been worrying about him more often these past couple of weeks since when have never heard from him. I know calling us would be pretty hard since we are pretty far apart by time zones, but that doesn't explain why he never wrote to us every once in a while. I mean now that computers are so popular he could have given us his email address of something." Shinichi cringed on the inside he should have realized that he had left out some ways to cover why Conan couldn't communicate through the ways Ayumi had mentioned. "I guess what I want to now is if he is okay and happy. I also want to give him a piece of my mind for never trying to communicate with us after he left."

"Well I'll try to track down my cousin. He is very bad about remembering to talk to someone just like me. You can ask Ran I hardly ever called when I was on my big case. She almost always yelled at me when I called wanting to know when I would be back."

"Thank you." She gave a bow. "I should probably be heading home now."

"I let you know when I talk to Conan-kun. Also since it's starting to get dark out you might want to ask Agasa-hakase for a ride."

"I will." She replied as she headed out the library. She then went and said goodbye to Kari and Ran. She also thanked Ran for letting her come over and for the delicious

dinner. She then left and headed next door to ask the professor for a ride home.

It was the next day and once again Ayumi was leaving school. Ai unfortunately had to stay after school with something about the science teacher trying to get her to tutor some of her classmates. She was fingering her Detective Boys badge that she never went anywhere with out when suddenly she heard some static come out and a voice she didn't quite recognize saying her name.

"Hai, this is Ayumi but who are you?" Ayumi asked bewildered.

"It's me Edogawa Conan."

"Conan-kun." Ayumi was shocked. She was surprised she hadn't fallen over or dropped the badge right then.

"Meet me at the big tree in the park ok? Then we can talk since I haven't seen you in 5 years."

"Kay see you in ten." Ayumi turned and started running the other way. She passed the school were Ai was waiting behind a tree to follow her to the park just incase something happened and she needed to intervene. She couldn't have Shinichi blow everything and somehow managed to put them in danger. She also couldn't have someone drop dead and distract him from the task at hand since that boy was a dead body magnet.

Ayumi reached the park out of breath, and now all that was left to find the tree that the bespeckled boy had mentioned. The tree had been the meeting spot for the Detective Boy for many years. The two years that Conan was there and then a couple years after that for the four that were left.

Ayumi stopped bewildered. Conan had said meet her at the tree but the only person there was Shinichi.

"Shinichi-niichan, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be on a case or with Kari-chan? By the way have you seen Conan-kun he said he would meet me here."

Shinichi took a deep breathe it was now or never. "Ayumi-chan, I am Conan."

"What…No you're not….That's impossible….. Conan's 14…..you're 24….It just not possible…" Ayumi stuttered as her thoughts came out broken and incomplete. Tears were starting to stream down her face. Shinichi meet Ai's eyes, as she stood a little further away, trying to get morale support and encouragement from her gaze.

"I know it sounds impossible but it's true Ayumi-chan. You don't have to believe me but at least listen." The girl nodded her head as the tears kept coming. "It all started one day in Tropical Land…." The story came out of the men in black, the drug that shrank his body, and his quest to return to his original size. He left out the parts about Ai to give her a chance to tell Ayumi when she was ready.

The 14-year-old was confused and baffled she simply turned and left the park trying to wipe away her tears. Shinichi understood she needed time to think this over.

"Do you think I did the right thing?" he asked the girl in the shadows.

"Yes, I just hope I have enough courage you to tell her about myself."

The two walked back to there respected houses together.

- Owari